Absolutely awful since day 1 - Software Engineer Capital One Employee Review

1.0
9 May 2022
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

They will pay for your AWS certification.

Cons

I had an awful experience at Capital One. Even before I joined the company, it took 3 months after I heard I passed the interview to get an offer. After that, I was concerned about the leveling on the offer letter being different than what I applied for. The recruiter lied to me and told me that the leveling was the same as what I applied for, all while shaming me for questioning them about it. I later learned after I joined about this discrepancy, and it really put a bad taste in my mouth, making me want to leave. Onboarding was very lackluster. Only a couple people reached out during my first few weeks to ask if I needed help or to introduce themselves, and I was given no training for new engineers. This wouldn't be as much of an issue if the documentation was good. However, documentation is very bad at the company as a whole. A lot of things that need documentation don't have it already, and the things that do have documentation have really vague or outdated information. To make matters worse, there are a lot of links to where documentation should be, and SO MANY links are broken due to different wikis being changed. This is incredibly frustrating as a new engineer because you need to ask someone for help for pretty much everything. That wouldn't be an issue, except it can be very difficult to get a response from people. If you do get a response, people tend to be rude and will assume you're doing something wrong before actually answering the question you asked. I also really disliked the work I was doing, which primarily involved fixing some really bad code that previous engineers had written. I have never seen such badly written code in a professional environment, and I was very surprised by the low standards. A lot of time was wasted in awkward meetings where nobody says anything, and one person shares their screen while trying to debug an issue. If that all isn't bad enough, the forced distribution performance reviews are incredibly stressful, and you have very little control over how you will get rated. Everything is appearance based, and you have to basically brag about yourself constantly if you want to get better than a "Strong" rating. I found that a lot of things were done just to make my team look better even if they were counterproductive or didn't make sense. A lot of reviews I read before I joined said that the work life balance here was good, but that was not true on my team. There were several instances of working multiple 12+ hour days in a week to meet some arbitrary deadline set to make the team (and manager) look better. The forced distribution rating system makes it so it's difficult for an individual to decline working late when all your teammates are acting like they are ok with it because otherwise you'd just get thrown under the bus during reviews. Overall, I had a terrible time being employed by Capital One. I started interviewing for other companies before I had even been at the company for a year because I hated it so much.

Explore other reviews about Capital One

5.0
7 Jun 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Excellent benefits Great community, major opportunities for growth

Cons

The training process can be challenging due to the volume of information and the absence of a dedicated trainer, though the team is supportive and committed to helping new employees succeed.

1.0
1 Jun 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Pay can be decent compared to GovCon. Some people are a pleasure to work with. Other non-pay related incentives.

Cons

Never heard more nonsensical topics during meetings; people sharing their sexual preferences, flaunting overly dramatic personal lifestyle decisions, diversity to the point of failure, etc. Hearing the term "white guilt" in a professional setting was, well, pretty unprofessional. Stack ranking for performance reviews is a mess. Someone has to have an "F" regardless of their performance because that is what their line of business is allotted. Be prepared to be held responsible for actions any Sr Leadership would just sweep under the rug under their own circumstances. If a manager doesn't like you, regardless of your productivity, you're toast unless you're able to find another LoB to support. HR / AR are just a check in the box and will most likely point you from one to the other and back again without resolving any issues. You'll find yourself curious as to what leadership does as they continue to scrape managerial responsibilities from their plate, to yours. Last but certainly not least; you may find yourself working hard on a project; nights and weekends, just in case that work life balance is feeling a little too perfect. Fret not, someone will surely assist in taking credit for the hard work you've put in. I'm sure none of these things will happen to you, though. Best of luck!

4
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